Cascades Carnivore Project

Today I accepted an offer to join a research team in southern Washington state studying wolverines and cascade red foxes! This project is the PhD research of Jocelyn Akins, a student at UC Davis, and focuses on carnivores in the Cascade Mountain Range. Specifically, this project is investigating the presence of the threatened wolverine (Gulo gulo) and the cascade red fox (Vulpes vulpes cascadensis) through winter surveys and genetic material. In short, I'll be snowmobiling all winter (over old volcanoes!) and snowshoeing or skiing into remote locations to monitor camera traps and collect hair and fecal samples from animals. The overall goals of Jocelyn's initiatives are to maintain biodiversity within this range by monitoring species of concern and determining important areas of habitat use.

I'm really looking forward to this project, as I became intrigued with the wolverine through Doug Chadwick's book "The Wolverine Way" (I recently met Doug at the Montana SCB Research Symposium). The wolverine has had many problems in the lower 48 due to habitat suitability, connectivity, and low population numbers. With such low numbers, the wolverine clearly needs to be listed as an endangered species, and yet the species has been denied the listing twice in the last five years. Currently the species is listed as warranted but not precluded under the Endangered Species Act, meaning that while there is need for them to be listed as endangered, there are more important species ahead of wolverines on this list.  I know far less about the cascade red fox, so I am really excited to get started on this project in January.  Red foxes are amazing mesocarnivores, and between low population numbers and humans feeding them and taking them as pets, learning more about their distribution and habitat selection will be an important step in their conservation in Washington.

I'm excited to get back into the snow (though it won't be as cold as it was in Montana!) and hone my snowmobiling skills.  It's going to be a challenge!  Washington state is beautiful, so I'll have plenty to soak in on days where I'm huffing and puffing or shoveling snow out of my pants.  It's a real treat to have the chance to study the wolverine and learn about the cascade red fox, two rare species, so I hope to have lots of photos this winter.  I can't wait to learn and share with you.  More to come!

For more information on the project, go to: http://cascadescarnivoreproject.blogspot.com/

To learn about author Doug Chadwick and his awesome book "The Wolverine Way," visit: http://www.patagonia.com/us/patagonia.go?assetid=51801

Loving the recent cold (about -5F here) at Avalanche Lake in GNP! I can't wait to get to Washington!

Part II, Again

One of the best parts about joining the project was assisting in the radio-collaring of black bears. Working on a noninvasive sampling study means we rarely see animals, with most of our "encounters" finding the evidence of an animal being there long before we were. With this study, we collected hair samples and monitored camera traps, so while we often watched hilarious bear videos and too many raccoon or armadillo videos, it was really a treat to get our hands on living, breathing bears. After all, they're the stars of this project! Clay wants to know how many there are in southern Missouri and where so we can protect their populations and encourage connectivity and positive wildlife management.  With that, here are some bear photos: 

Two traps, two bears! The big guy is in the white drum, while the lady bear is in the larger unit. They were most likely traveling separately and arrived at the traps at separate times. The bears were lured into the trap with none other than stale doughnuts... I know, they get me every time, too.

Taking morphometric measurements includes overall body length, girth, tail length, leg length, and even foot and toe length

A very large male American black bear being fitted with a radio collar for the second time (he slipped his first one, the tricky bugger!).

How many guys does it take to weigh a bear? A lot! This male weighed 390 lbs! Before winter of last year, he was 475 lbs... all gained for hibernation in winter. The bear is still anesthetized. Notice I'm not helping.

The lady bear was already fit with a radio collar, so there was no need to anesthetize her. Here, she waits calmly and somewhat curiously for us to lift the trap door. Note: bears are not friendly! Never approach one!

The black bear doesn't have claws as long as it's cousin, the grizzly bear, but they are still very dexterous with their paws.

 The hair snare crew! This bear was the biggest one I have ever seen- I had a hard time lifting his head! His tongue kept lolling out as a result of the drug, which just isn't polite for a photo, so I stuck my hand in his mouth to tuck it in (but he popped it out for our group pic).

Measuring her chest girth.

An older, chocolate brown female black bear who was very pretty. The name doesn't imply the color, as black bears vary from shades of brown to black to cinnamon, and individuals may even change coat color throughout the year.  Again, she is anesthetized in this photo, but she is starting to come around.

During bear captures, one of the things this project does is remove a vestigial tooth- one leftover from evolution and useless to the animal. The underdeveloped canine is removed to age the animal, use for genetic identification, and in a female's case, determine how many parturitions (births) she's had. How cool is that?!

Our little "teenage" black bear male. Estimated to be just over one year, he weighed 150 lbs (but doesn't look like it!). Here, Mat was pouring water over the anesthetized bear because one of the side effects of the drug is losing the ability to thermoregulate. It was a very hot summer and the last thing anyone wants is the drug causing harm (or death) to an animal. 

This photo is a little pathetic, because the little guy is trying to get up but can't because the drug is still in his system. As a result, I'm safe to be this close, but not for long!

Honestly, is there anything more adorable? He is young and will face many challenges in his life, and he will never be friendly, but I love this photo because it's simply a soft, wild  moment (albeit drug induced).

There goes that funny side effect with the tongue again! It has to be frustrating. 

How does this photo make you feel?

Missouri Black Bear Project, Part II- Or, Is That A Squirrel On My Head?

Let's see, where did we leave off? May. The month of May was devoted to setting hair snares for the bear project. In all, we set just shy of 350 snares ("we" being a team of eight! go us!). The above photo was captured by a Cuddyback camera and shows the size and shape of one of our snares (that is bear spray in the holster on my hip). Setting these snares involved determining probable bear habitat using topographic maps, knowledge of bear behavioral ecology and historical habitat selection, and then searching out the private landowners once the public land snares had been set. But mostly, this required talking to people. Communities are the heart of conservation. Non-scientists love nature too, and it never ceases to amaze me what we can accomplish together when biologists share knowledge and incorporate the public. I most recently discussed this issue at the Montana Chapter of the Society for Conservation Biology's Research Symposium, but that will take another posting entirely. For me, the Missouri Black Bear Project really brought home the importance of talking with the public. After all, wildlife doesn't discern what is public and what is private property, and if we are going to save this one planet, we really need to work and talk and laugh and discover together. For the bear project, this required all sorts of public speaking skills, people-reading skills, and occasionally trying to not get shot (you think I'm kidding). I had many an interesting experience standing in someone's house ("should we actually go in? the lights are off..." or "why yes I will have a pop and some homemade cookies!"), having someone's dog (or goat) wanting to kill me, and wondering if the property in the back of the woods was actually a meth lab (Mark and I most definitely knocked on the door of a marijuana house. I almost cried). Perhaps the most memorable was one woman searching for 'something' in her home as we were standing in her living room discussing the bear project. We immediately determined that she did not own the property we were hoping to set a snare on. Power line corridors are often used by wildlife, as people rarely use them and they are excellent trails for animals to travel long distances and exert little energy. We were trying to find out who owned the property next to one such corridor, as setting a snare in the woods near a corridor offered a great chance to draw in a bear: the wind would carry the scent along the corridor and was easy to find for both bear and biologist. The woman was paying no attention to her very upset and very large dog, who had decided he wanted to rip off our faces and was showing us, with precision, each of the teeth he planned to do it with. We were trying to politely sneak out without losing our appendages to the dog, as we had a very long day ahead of us (finding landowners when county ownership maps are outdated is very difficult), when suddenly another woman emerged from under a blanket on the couch we were standing next to. She wasn't really a fan of bears, which I didn't mind, or of being woken up at noon by strange bear scientists; from here she echoed the sentiments of the dog. At the same time the first woman continued to mutter to herself about finding that 'something' to show us.

Well, 'something' literally appeared out of nowhere.

With a flash of brown and an explosion of dust from the curtains,  a very small 'something,' more commonly known as a squirrel, launched herself onto my friend's head. No one can truly be prepared for this, not even a biologist (and I will proudly say that we are prepared for many things). Poor Ryan stood still as a statue, not knowing exactly what was on his head, and calmly asked me, "Is there a squirrel on my head?" The chirping and frantic scratching on his scalp must have given it away. The woman patted the squirrel (still on Ryan's head) and told us the elaborate story of how she had rescued the poor thing from her cats (she did have fourteen on the porch. I counted). A great heart with a love for animals, this woman had scratches up and down her arms from this juvenile adult squirrel, whose name might have been Maude. She loved her squirrel, and she loved that there might be bears in her back yard (her sleepy friend did not. The dog at this point had shifted his focus to the squirrel). Squirrels make horrible pets, but neither Ryan or I had the heart to bring this up, as this woman had spent most of her life rescuing animals or tending to orphaned and injured wildlife. Maude seemed pretty content to use our bodies as living race tracks anyway. Ryan and I were admittedly mesmerized by this tiny, neurotic creature, who didn't bite yet left little scrapes up and down our arms as she darted between us, performing Spider Man-like acrobatics on Ryan's back and trying to make a nest in my hair. However, since collectively we still had more than 200 snares to set at this point, we couldn't hang out with the dusty squirrel or the killer dog for too long. Upon depositing Maude back to her owner at least three times ("she just loves your hair!"), we bid our new friends farewell and politely declined adopting one or three of the kittens on the porch. Out of all my experiences this summer, I like to think that there is one more lady who now talks about bear conservation when shocking her guests with her pet squirrel.

We see a lot of things in this field. We meet people who hate animals, who dislike certain species or find no value in the sanctity of life for native or endangered species. We encounter the remains of wildlife shot by humans, or find ourselves in nervous situations in the woods where there might be illegal steel traps set on the ground before us. We met people who don't like bears, who wanted nothing to do with the project, or who didn't want strangers on their property. Two of our guys got barricaded from leaving a driveway by a gang of bear poachers, and I was harassed on two different occasions by strange men when I was alone in the woods. I even narrowly avoided the flying bullets from some kids doing target practice directly into the woods where I was working. The point is, people are way more crazy than Maude the squirrel. We face problems every day in conservation, and some days it seems like a losing battle. But then we meet the people who rescued Maude from starving to death, or the landowners who find joy and pride in knowing there are bears with cubs on their property. We meet Master Naturalists who want to help us set snares and learn about the project, or tell us their stories about wildlife encounters. We laugh together about the time someone literally ran into the side of a moose, and we share websites and paintings and news stories with biologists and the public alike. The most important thing anyone in this field can do is keep talking. Knock on doors and not only get landowner permission, but get landowner passion. Building relationships (and yes, not getting shot or contracting rabies from unvaccinated animals) is the key to accomplishing any goal, and in the fight to save wildlife populations or connect corridors for wildlife we have to remember to share our passion with everyone, regardless of age or degree or affiliation.  I learned so much and saw so much just by knocking on the doors of private landowners. I was shocked, amused, disappointed, encouraged, fed, yelled at, laughed at, laughed with, hugged, ignored, and enlightened. Mostly I talked about bears, but I also learned about the different ways we can work together to save bears, squirrels, and the world. Not a bad side effect of such a cool project.

Measuring the height of the snare for consistency (bears hopefully leave hair samples when going under or over the barbed wire to get to the scent lure pile at the center).

Mark pretends to construct a snare for the purpose of this photo.

Avalanche Lake

I'm currently in Montana for the Society for Conservation Biology research symposium. But, I'm also here to hike! A photo from one of my favorite places in Glacier National Park. To learn more about Avalanche Lake, go to:  http://www.nps.gov/glac/index.htm .

Missouri Black Bear Project, Part I

This summer I lived and worked in the Ozarks as part of a field crew studying the population dynamics, resource selection, and movements of black bears (Ursus americanus) in Missouri.  The project is being run by Clay Wilton, a master's student in the Carnivore Ecology lab at the University of Mississippi (http://fwrc.msstate.edu/carnivore/students.asp).  The study spans the south central and southeast part of the state and is divided into two seasons, the first having been this summer and covering approximately 20,000 square km. Black bears were extirpated from the state in the 1940's due to excessive and unregulated hunting, loss of forest habitat, and urbanization. Since the 1960's, however, bears have slowly returned to the state, most likely from a combination of better forest management and a successful bear reintroduction project in Arkansas in the 60's. Clay's project, however, will be the first study of its kind on bears in the state, as the population is unknown. Knowing bear numbers and understanding their movements and habitat preferences will be key in future bear management, encouraging expansion, and encouraging positive human-wildlife interaction.

 A bear census is not the same as a human census. One cannot simply walk up to a bear den and ask "how many are you?" A bear census, however, still takes a lot of work, and efficiency is key.  Non-invasive techniques are tools in wildlife research that biologists can employ to save time and gather information on elusive and hard to reach species (or minimize stress on animals). These tools can usually be in the field when we cannot, ie all night and all day, and in several places at once. The methods used in Clay's study includes infrared camera traps and baited, barbed wire hair snares. Camera traps can "capture" and "recapture" animals on film as a means to detect presence and movements of individual animals. Individuals can be identified based on photos, as these cameras are triggered by movement to shoot film and video. In the case of this project, we set up more than one hundred cameras across the study site at hair snare locations. Barbed wire hair snares are a means to collect hair samples from animals for DNA assessment, species identification, and other laboratory tests.  Barbed wire wrapped around trees surrounds a bait pile, usually covered in scent lures or food, to entice an animal to enter the corral and hopefully leave a hair sample in the process.  This method is not painful to animals, as thick fur coats protect the skin from scratching. This summer, we created and managed more than three hundred hair snares.
 
In order to set these snares and cameras, we covered both public and private property in search of probable bear habitat. It took our team four weeks to set all of the snares, and the remaining two months of the study to bait and to check for samples.  Additionally, our field crew was able to attend the radiocollaring of black bears, since the study assesses the movements of individual animals as well.  The GPS collars provide animal locations every ten minutes, so Clay is able to download the collar data via satellite and create maps of animal movements (which is totally cool, because you can watch a bear walk a twenty mile trail and literally pass within feet from your snares and not enter one, or you can imagine that a bear is reading a good book because he/she sat in the same patch of woods for eight hours). Because bears are crafty, we also had to venture out on occasion to retrieve a dropped, or slipped, GPS collar.

Due to the size of this summer's study site, our field crew split up and lived in two different field houses, with Clay traveling between the two each week to cover snare locations.  My field house was on Caney Mountain, an awesome conservation area outside of Gainesville and home to everything imaginable, from wild hogs to bats to skunks. On days off, we often traveled to the North Fork river for kayak trips and fishing, or into town to use the internet, as we had no cable access out in the boonies. We also formed a front porch mountain band comprising of guitars, harmonica, a mandolin, and beer. As the only female on this study, I often reminded myself that although we shared one bathroom, we more importantly shared an interest in carnivore ecology...

Please visit the Missouri Black Bear Project's website for more information and cool photos (look for the hair snare crew!) as I compose Parts II and III of the study: http://www.fwrc.msstate.edu/carnivore/mo_bear/index.asp

Technical Difficulties

Ok, I know it's been two months, I'm sorry! This job has me out so remotely that we don't have phone service or internet access. With a six on, four off work schedule, I never find time to update this site on all the cool things we've been doing this summer.  This will change this week, however.  Check out this photo of an anesthetized black bear until my update:

Art

I was finally able to give my Christmas present to my parents.  My stepfather entered the hospital on Christmas Eve and didn't leave until the end of January.  He spent five of these days in a coma, due to a severe case of double-lobed pneumonia.  Luckily he has, finally, fully recovered.  Because he was so ill over the holidays, and I left for Montana right after he was discharged, I left this painting with family in Charlotte, NC.  On my recent visit to NC I retrieved it and was finally able to give it to them! Chalk pastel rubs like chalk, so it does not travel or ship well when unprotected.  I found a photo of a clouded leopard similar to this painting; the captive animal was standing against a white backdrop and I was stunned at the beauty of the cloud-like pattern contrasted against the blank background, so I did my best to create my own version.  Note the overly-large feet and abnormally long tail characteristic of the endangered species.

Lions, Tigers, and Bears... Literally

Generally my absence from this site means one of two things: I'm either really busy and can't be bothered to upload photos and stories, or I'm not doing anything worth noting.  When I was at the Smithsonian, I didn't discuss the research much, mostly because the clouded leopard project is part of an international consortium and I was only at liberty to discuss my intern project.  However, for the past eight weeks I've been out of the field, but I'm getting ready to go back!

I left Whitefish in the middle of March and returned to Houston.  I love coming home.  I rarely spend a lot of time with my parents, and since my stepfather's near-fatal case of pneumonia this Christmas, I've been looking forward to a few weeks at home.  I was also able to visit North Carolina, where I grew up and went to college (Go Pack), to see family and a few close friends.  Since returning from Whitefish, however, I've definitely missed the deep-snow environment and the anticipation of coming up to a trap in hopes of finding a bobcat.  Roberta has closed her final winter field season and is getting closer to writing her dissertation! Unfortunately M5 and M6 never showed up, so the data from their collars is lost.  Hopefully these two cats are doing well in the forests of the Flathead and have not come to any harm, but that is a likelihood in this field.

I've been in the application and interview process since late January, and I'm so excited to begin the summer season in two weeks.  I came very close to accepting a research position on mountain lion and bobcat telemetry, and I was very interested in a study on bluebirds (birds are under-appreciated, you know).  Instead, I am heading to the Ozarks to work on the Missouri black bear project!  So, I've literally worked with lions, tigers, and now bears (Carolina Tiger Rescue adopted three lions last fall... I need to upload the photos!).

Why bears, you ask?  Isn't this woman like the future crazy cat lady? Well, probably.  I really enjoy carnivore, specifically feline, ecology, but the larger North American mammals share similar habitats as well as drawing parallels in the methods used to study the biology and ecology of these animals.  Ultimately, I'm hoping to collaborate with a research institution within the next year on a master's thesis involving bobcat or mountain lion physiological response and home-range patterns, but the techniques used for such a project can be learned from any mesocarnivore or carnivore project.  Specifically, non-invasive techniques are on the rise for learning about wildlife, and the project I will join in two weeks aims to determine the black bear population in the state of Missouri.  Employed through Mississippi State University, I will be collecting hair samples for DNA assessment to determine the population of resident animals in a study site encompassing about 20,000 km squared (how do you do the superscript on this site?!).  More or less, this project is a bear census. Since we won't be able to walk up to a bear den and ask, " how many are you?" like in a human census, the project is employing non-invasive hair snare collection stations. In summary, these stations involve the use of barbed-wire being wrapped around a group of trees (think geometric shapes) with something to lure them past the wire, such as old donuts or fish oil (I've had extensive experience with fish oil, and let me tell you: next to cheetah feces, there is nothing worse than the smell of fish oil. Unless you ask my cats.).  Don't worry- the barbed wire is not nearly as horrible as it sounds!  Bears, like so many wild animals, have two coats: a thick, dense undercoat that serves to insulate and protect, and a longer outer coat that is water resistant.  If a bear walks under a barb on the wire, then, he or she would not have nearly the reaction were you or I to come across it.  The idea centers around the bears being drawn to the smell of the lure and leaving a few hair samples on the barbed wire for us to come and collect.

Unfortunately, bears were extirpated from Missouri by 1940, mostly due to unregulated hunting and trapping as well as urbanization and intolerance.  Bear reintroductions in Arkansas began in the 1960's and black bears have recolonized north into Missouri since.   The Missouri Department of Conservation, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, United States Forest Service, and the National Park Service have collaborated with the hopes of determining the current bear population in southern and central Missouri in order to mitigate future human-wildlife conflict and to also learn about and encourage the conservation of suitable black bear habitat.

We will be working under Clay Wilton, a graduate student at Mississippi State University.  Per his involvement with this project, he is studying population dynamics, resource selection, and movements of black bears in Missouri.  Although it is not a guarantee, we are hoping to put out the remaining radio collars for his project this summer, meaning that we will be trapping bears in a similar fashion to that of the bobcat project.  I'm quite excited!

For more information about the project, as well as to see some cool photos, visit the project website at:
http://www.fwrc.msstate.edu/carnivore/mo_bear/


Photo credit:  The new photo is from a National Geographic wallpaper. Unfortunately none of my bear photos from Montana are very clear, so I'll have to wait until I get to Missouri to snap some better ones!

Windchill, and Painting

The past few days have been picturesque for how I like to live my life: hanging around town with good friends and good food.  I love Whitefish.  It's the best place to come for a good microbrew, interesting people, and great entertainment.  There are beautiful mountains blanketed in snow, the richness of wildlife (I like to wonder where that weasel is heading based on his tracks in the snow), and an atmosphere where everyone feels exactly the same way.

Friday, Mark and I went to a really cool show by local artists Terabyte and The Battery Eaters.  Terra and Stephen live in Whitefish, and I know Stephen from spending long hours entering bobcat data in the local coffee shop.  With tons of original songs and a sound that makes the soul want to dance, their electro flux style is really awesome.  Plus, Terra has worked on one of the bear DNA projects in Glacier National Park, so I'm definitely up for chatting about someone who loves art and science.

The rest of the weekend was spent in a similar fashion: coffee shop for internet and phone access (yay job applications and phone interviews!), and the brewery for a pint and some good company.  And food.  Whitefish boasts, rightfully so, some of the best food around... get here. Ski. Eat. Etc. We celebrated Bobbie's birthday on Monday with a family/field crew barbeque. Happy Birthday to Bobcat Bobbie!

Today was supposed to be the first day back to work opening traps for bobcats.  However, with one snowmobile refusing to work properly, Mark and I have a free day (two people per snowmobile).  This didn't really matter, though, as today's forecast includes whiteout conditions and snow tornadoes from a nasty wind.  Bobcats are hardy critters, but nothing moves around when the high is 0 F.  So, no working on the mountain for any of us, as frostbite and hypothermia are inevitable with a windchill of -30 to -50 F for the next few days.  I guess M1 will have to wait a bit longer for a free meal.

I spent the weekend painting, and man does it feel good to use a brush again.  Of late, I've taken up chalk pastels, but this weekend I pulled out the acrylics to have some fun.  Here are some of the bobcats:

 

MUNK, or M7. 5 x 7 acrylic on canvas.

M1, or Old Faithful. 5 x 7 acrylic on canvas.

Hopefully we can get out soon to see some more of those bobcats! I've got to move my flight... I think I'm staying here a while longer.  How can I not?

MUNK

Tomorrow is the last day of the ten day hitch.  We are trapping and tracking bobcats in Flathead National Forest in Montana, and the study site encompasses 250,000 acres.  Roberta Newbury (Bobbie) has two cats left to trap in order to retrieve their GPS radio collars, which unfortunately failed and did not drop off like they were supposed to in October.  She waited until bears went into hibernation to begin trapping, and I'm here for February as part of her field crew to chase cats and figure out what they're up to.  This week has been extremely busy for the bobcats; we have caught, almost caught, and missed several animals.

After my experience with M1 last week, I was eager for another cat, and hopefully one we could process (specifically, M5 and M6, who are still attached to GPS collars).  The same day we caught M1 for the first time, we missed who we think is M3, an older male Bobbie finally trapped in January and removed his collar.  He is an enormous cat, weighing in at 32 lbs, and a seasoned male with a wily ability to break out of traps.  When Bobbie was trapping cats to radio collar them in Winter 2010, M3 busted out of a trap once before she trapped him a second time; however, he was halfway out of the trap when she found him, stuck between two layers of fencing and working hard to tear the trap to pieces.  Last week, we again saw his handiwork: a small hole at the base of the trap he had worked over for maybe an hour to escape the have-a-heart style trap.  I imagine his gums were sore from working the metal fencing, but then again, bobcats are hardy, and M3 did it again earlier this week, so he must be in top shape.  His nickname is Houdini because he vanishes from traps, but when he has, he hasn't taken the meat with him.  My guess is he's just a little too stressed when that door slams shut to hang out for long; the PhD lady might come back and stick him again or put another necklace on him (always good when wildlife is wary of humans).  Also on the line up of bobcats this week was M2, a young male entering his third year.  When Bobbie collared him last winter, he was a little guy and very scared of her.  After catching him a few more times last year, she noticed his transformation as he became braver, depicting that classic bobcat attitude.  When we trapped him at the end of last week, I was so excited, because he was so much bigger than the pictures I'd seen from summer!  And he was unhappy to see us, too, growling and bluffing us with his snarls as he inched forward.  We let him go.

 M2.

M2 is not as happy as I am.

Presumably both M2 and M3 have raided our traps this week; some of the trap doors froze with some wet snowfall early this week, and the only evidence we have are perfect little bobcat prints in the trap, and the meat pilfered.  Tricky!

The most exciting part of this week was MUNK. MUNK is the unknown male bobcat Bobbie and Jodi have trapped three times, but not anesthetized for samples prior to Monday (one time, the drug froze!).  I was not the only one ecstatic to see him.  For me, MUNK is the first bobcat I've ever touched.  MUNK, once processed, is M7, more appropriately the 007 bobcat.  Akin to James Bond, this cat is all attitude.  I've never seen anything so ferocious.  MUNK, absolutely furious with our presence, put up a nearly half hour fight with the four of us before we could even get the needle near his haunches to administer the temporary anesthetic.  I don't think I've ever seen a ninja movie where any character can keep an eye on four people at once the way this cat did.  Stressing an animal is never the goal, but MUNK was definitely over stimulated as we tried to maneuver about the trap and distract him enough for one person to sneak the needle into his muscle.  Not easy on anyone, especially a bobcat with a huge superiority complex.  We all breathed a sigh of relief when I managed to inject most of the drug, and we backed off to wait for the cat to go under.

What an assumption.

We figured it was human error the first time we gave him a booster, that when he backflipped at the last of the injection I had missed the last cc's.  He just wasn't going down.  The second time Mark gave him a carefully measured booster, we were surprised but figured he was over stimulated.  We hid behind the snowmobiles so he would stop staring at us.  The third time Bobbie gave him a booster, however, it was clear that this bobcat had enough attitude coursing through his veins to burn through not only our souls with his fiery stare, but the telazol as well.  Finally, however, MUNK went down. Sorda.  Bobbie just gave up and scruffed the semi-anesthetized cat and brought him up the hill for us to begin working with.

Briefly, Bobbie's research focuses on the movements and daily energy requirements of bobcats (Lynx rufus) in a deep snow environment in northwestern Montana; field data will be used to model bobcat movements, energy balance, and home range dynamics to better inform bobcat management and elucidate potential interaction with the federally threatened lynx in Montana.  With hair samples, skin biopsies, and body measurements of resident animals in her study site, including animal without radio collars (such as MUNK), she can better assess the population with identified individuals.  Collecting this data includes beginning with an anesthetized cat; I held him down while the drug finally kicked in.  We use heated pads to maintain body temperature, as the anesthetic lowers body temperature.  Eye drops keep eyes lubricated since blinking is stopped under the drug's influence.  MUNK was weighed, measured in length, girth, height, etc, and after we took a skin biopsy of the ear, a metal ID tag was placed in his ear.  How long this remains in place remains up to the animal's rambunctiousness, but it enables us to identify him should we catch him again (surprise, we caught him again yesterday in the same trap!).  While this cat is an absolute terror, a formidable predator of solid muscle with dangerous teeth and lightning quick claws, he is absolutely one of the most beautiful cats I have ever seen.  The dense undercoat of the bobcat, overlaid with fine, long hairs provide perfect insulation for this animal in the harsh environment.  Everyone on the field crew is easily mesmerized with the luxury of the coat, and I relished the moments with him in my lap as I stroked his fur and marveled over the size of his paws (as large as the palm of my hand).  Careful to avoid putting my face near his (the cats are stoned out of their minds, but still mildly aware), I got some funny pics with the guy:

 MUNK, or M7, aka 007, not looking at the camera

 Passing an anesthetized 007 to Mark.

This process, minus the war of trying to anesthetize this particular cat, takes all of twenty minutes, and afterward MUNK was placed back into the trap to recuperate for a few hours.  The cats need to be 100% aware before released, as they would be vulnerable to other predators otherwise.  We came back to a bobcat who had the munchies: MUNK was chowing down on the deer leg that had lured him into the trap in the first place, and he refused to leave when we opened the door.  Clearly, he wasn't taking freedom without a full belly, and he was rather possessive over the meat when Bobbie and I edged closer for some good photos (thank goodness for a good zoom lens!).  We left him to his own devices, and when we came back by on the snowmobiles, he had gone about his way.  

Tomorrow we close traps.  We've seen M1 twice, MUNK twice, lost M3 twice, and caught M2 once and possibly lost meat to him another time.  I'm learning these cats' habits and learning to identify their tracks in the snow (coyotes look similar).  In addition to the sneaky ermines and tree squirrels stealing the meat in the traps, there are bobcats in these mountains.   It's just a matter of time before we catch some more.  Although we don't need to see MUNK again, I'm sure we will... and I can't wait.

It Started With Old Faithful

I've now been in Whitefish for two weeks, and a lot has happened since my arrival.  Foremost, it is definitely colder than Houston.  I anticipated feeling that painful, burning cold akin to rare winter nights growing up in North Carolina, but I've discovered that southerners don't usually wear the levels of long underwear everyone seems to sport around here, which makes the cold bearable.  I arrived in the middle of the work week for the bobcat crew, which is typical of field work: ten days on, four days off.  Unfortunately, I arrived at the beginning of an insane cold snap, so the work week was shortened due to temperatures falling to -30 F in the evenings.  Even the hardiest of wildlife has limits, and virtually nothing comes out to play in that kind of weather.  On Friday, we decided to have a little fun after closing traps for the days off, and Bobbie took us to some roads to break trail and spin powder on the snowmobiles. At this point, I had yet to turn over the snowmobile.  With the completion of the ten day hitch, I had one very important thing to look forward to: my birthday.

Last weekend was the Whitefish Winter Carnival, and there couldn't have been a better weekend for it.  We watched the Black Star Beer Barter (what would you give for a year's supply of Black Star Beer?), and everything was up for grabs: whitewater rafting trips, free advertising, green eggs and ham, and even a custom made jock strap.  During the town parade, I saw my first yaak, Paul Bunyan wearing boots on stilts made of nails, sled dogs, and lots of children dressed as marvel comic characters.  Add good food, good beer, and better friends, and it was a great day.  To top it off, my birthday was the next day (the Superbowl double-booked with me). Bobbie (PhD candidate who chases bobcats) made pancakes, which didn't require syrup because she also made huckleberry sauce to go on them. After breakfast, Bobbie, her husband, and Mark and I traveled down to one of the natural hot springs in the valley for a good soak.  I'd never been to a natural hot spring, and we had a great time before heading back into town.  The cattle in the area are giving birth (we definitely saw a cow in labor while driving), and several bald eagles were waiting around in the field to eat whatever was left from the birthing process.  I don't often talk about the birds in Montana, but the avian wildlife here is fantastic.  Finishing up the evening with one of the best homemade chocolate cakes I've ever eaten almost all of made for a wonderful Montana birthday. Plus, it snowed!

We started work again on Wednesday, which began with opening traps and loading them with deer meat.  Bobbie's traps do not harm anything that goes into them, and they are mostly bobcat specific, save for the weasels who steal the meat and the occasional snowshoe hare who triggers the trap door.  We snowmobile to each trap, and I've definitely gotten my fill of snowmobiling: on the first day back (and my fifth day on the snowmobile), I accelerated too quickly coming out of a U-Turn and flipped the snowmobile completely upside down in a ditch with me underneath.  At the immediate moment I realized I had gone off the snowmobile trail by not turning sharp enough, I apparently hit the gas and dramatically sped up the flipping process.  Luckily, nothing was hurt: I wasn't stuck, and although the snowmobile was, Thing 1 (the snowmobile) started about ten minutes later.  I did manage to flood the engine sufficiently with gas, including filling up the gas gauge.  While most people just turn over a snowmobile, I opted for a flip, and I clearly live by the line Go big or Go Home.

 The infamous M1. Epic photo by Bobbie Newbury.

 But now on to the good stuff. Someone else who goes big: M1. M1 is the coolest, toughest, most awesome bobcat there ever was.  He is big, covers a lot of ground, and has been trapped 20 times as of this week.  He was the first cat Bobbie radio-collared (M1: M for male, 1 for the first cat), and everyone definitely has a soft spot for him.  He is the cat we saw last summer sitting on the side of the road in the rain (doing what? We have no idea), and he is the cat who followed Bobbie and her husband while they were following him one day trying to triangulate his location.  It is only fitting that my first experience with a truly wild bobcat is the baddest of them all.  Out of the cats we chased last summer, I only saw one, and it was M1, only by chance.  We chased M6 for three days, and we had M3 within fifty feet one day, but no sightings.  I felt like a kid stumbling around Christmas presents as I tripped through the snow to the trap where a somewhat sleepy M1 blinked lazily at us.  M1 is crafty- he goes from trap to trap throughout a winter season (two seasons with him being collared) and gorges himself on deer meat.  It's smart, seeing as how he expels less energy in not having to hunt.  This cat can clear a plate of twenty pounds of meat easily, and he weighs thirty five.  I could go on, but I think I've illustrated how cool this cat is.

February 9. M1 disliking our presence as well as the camera. Photo by Mark Cancellare.

M1 wasn't relaxed.  He's a wild animal.  He does know the drill, however: I eat, the humans let me go because I am so scary.  He is acclimated to Bobbie, but he would still rip her to shreds and we all understand this.  M1 doesn't like new people, however, and was immediately stressed with the presence of four people looking at him, the new one being me.  M1 mostly watched Bobbie, I think because he can tell she's the alpha of the group, but he did make eye contact with me, and he emitted low, unearthly growls from his trembling frame the entire time.  As I watched M1, trying to avoid eye contact to mitigate stressing him further, I couldn't help but be amazed with what this one cat represents.  It is no wonder that Bobbie, or anyone else who has studied these animals, is in love.  Yes, I've worked with lots of dangerous exotic cats, but these animals are captive.  I would still never trust my life to one of them, but the danger and the wisdom of a captive animal is not unbridled like the gaze of a wild one, such as a bobcat who quakes with a combination of fear and anger so absolute that you, the one he growls at, know that you would never survive if this cat was given the chance.  This animal knows that he only has one chance, one shot at freedom and survival, and that is something no human will ever truly understand.  In nature, it's one wrong move and you're dead.  With fur trappers, it's one unlucky move for an animal and he is dead.  With Bobbie, it's one lucky cat who gets a meal, and one happy woman who collects data to make a difference for the future of bobcats.  For M1, it's as much meat as he can gorge and as many threats as he can emit in the few seconds before he shoots out of the trap like a cannonball, free for another moment, hopefully to survive another day.  M1 is, appropriately coined by Mark, like Old Faithful: he explodes into your life when you least expect it, but then again, did you ever expect anything different? What he does when we aren't around is anyone's guess, but I can't wait to see him again: beautiful, full, and ready to kick your ass if you get any closer.

 

A cold and overjoyed volunteer, and one bobcat who has seen it all: M1.

Photo Credit

The new photo is of Collins Bobcat from Carolina Tiger Rescue.  Amanda Byrne was kind enough to give me photos of Collins, as I have plans to do a series of paintings and drawings of bobcats.  As one could guess, I'm pretty fond of these cats.

Montana Bobcats

I arrived in Whitefish, Montana, yesterday afternoon.  I'll be working on my friend Roberta Newbury's PhD project.  Two days ago, I was wearing a tank top in Houston, Texas (normal in January), whereas today I am wearing layers for -30 F.  As a southerner, I grew up fearing snow, as school was canceled with the threat of two inches (to be fair, this is because snow turns to ice in the south, and we have no idea how to drive on that).  I am always amazed and full of respect for the wildlife that not only survives, but flourishes in the deep snow environment, and I'll be learning to do the same because I'm spending the month tracking bobcats, performing vegetation surveys, and trapping bobcats in more snow that I've ever seen in my life.  This also means I'll be learning to drive a snowmobile, the benefit of the snow being I'll have something soft to land in when I do some really awesome, unintentional flip off of the snowmobile.  Thankfully, there is no dignity in field work: one has to be prepared to fall, trip, bleed, and curse your way through some things.  Luckily, I have done all of these, so I'm looking forward to spending time with great friends on this field crew.  I'm also looking forward to warming my surely freezing hands on the fur of a live (anesthetized) bobcat.  The goal is to retrieve the radio collars, but looking at live bobcats is pretty darn cool, too.  I'll get some good release videos and photos soon.  Days usually begin at 7:30, but today we are starting late because the wind is 40mph up the mountains.  Hopefully my gear will hold up for me and I will stay warm!

MONTANA

Ok so I've pretty much determined that my ability to maintain this site has deteriorated rapidly over the last few months. With that being said, my resolution (including the New Year's resolution to stop texting while driving... just kidding mom, I never do that) will be to update it more accurately. I have a skype date, however, so I'll have to get back on that. My skype date is currently in Whitefish, Montana, working on the bobcat project I'll be joining IN TWO WEEKS.

The only professional way I know how to express my elation: hell yeah!

Foreshadowing: look out for Roberta Newbury. She's doing awesome things in the field of ecology.